Sept. 11 Transcripts Recall Horror of the Attack

Pleas of “mayday” made by officers just moments before their deaths in the World Trade Center appear on heart-wrenching transcripts to be released on Thursday of calls made on Sept. 11 to emergency services before the twin towers collapsed in roars of rubble and flame. A judge ordered the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, to release the nearly 2,000 pages of transcripts after a lawsuit was filed successfully by The New York Times. The transcripts record radio dispatches made by Port Authority officers and employees at the scene and telephone calls made to Port Authority police stations. The Port Authority, which oversaw the trade center’s operations, had its headquarters there and lost 37 of its officers in the attacks by the two hijacked jetliners. On the tapes, according to an article in Newsday which first reported details of the transcripts, a police officer can be heard calling “mayday” just seconds before the south twin tower collapsed and killed him. Another can be heard calmly trying to reach a police desk transmitter, not realizing it was already knocked out of commission by debris. Full Story